Tag Archives: Upcoming Events at The Cove

We hope that you will enjoy our “prayer note” — an internal communication, here at The Cove, created each month to remind and encourage our staff to pray. We will share these with you at the beginning of each month in hopes that, you too, will be encouraged.

By Donna Riesen

“The most important events in human history were the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” –Billy Graham

There are those hoping for “huge” turnouts on a certain day in March at key locations all across our country. No, I’m not referring to March 1st, “Super Tuesday.” I’m referring to an even more significant date on the calendar: Sunday, March 27th, Easter Sunday. While I am praying about results from Super Tuesday, I’m hoping that on Resurrection Sunday, churches throughout the U.S. will be filled to overflowing, both with those who know Jesus Christ and with those who need to come to know Him.

Our country is in the midst of a pivotal election year, with great issues hanging in the balance, and we as Christians should be faithful and committed to pray and to vote as God leads us. Yet even as we pray for God’s will and His blessing on our country, we acknowledge this reassuring truth: Our hope does not rest on election results, it rests on the fact of Christ’s resurrection.

While talk show hosts and political pundits make predictions and wait expectantly for exit poll results in key states, we can pray the prayer of the psalmist David, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him” (Psalm 62:5, NKJV).

As the noontime sky darkened on a Friday afternoon outside the walls of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, the hopes and expectations of Jesus’ followers seemed to be dashed. After long centuries of waiting and praying for the arrival of the promised Messiah, the one in whom they had placed their hopes hung bleeding, hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross. How could hope survive, when the promised deliverer was dying a horrible, shameful death? And how could a day like that ever have earned the name “Good Friday?”

We call it good because on that day, the good and holy and sinless Son of God gave His life to pay the penalty for our sin. We call it good because three days later, the stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty and death was defeated. We call it good because God’s agenda always exceeds our own expectations.

When the women went to the tomb on the Sunday morning after Christ’s crucifixion, they expected to find His cold, lifeless body sealed within a tomb. Instead, they found the stone rolled away and the grave empty, except for the linen graveclothes left behind. The angel summed it up succinctly: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5, NIV).

Talk about exceeding expectations!

We have much to pray about in this election year, but praise God that the results of Resurrection Sunday far outweigh the results of any Super Tuesday. This is why we can pray with great hope about any situation.

As you pray for The Cove throughout the month of March, pray with a resurrection mindset. Expectations are high as we head into the month of March, with a little of everything on The Cove’s ministry schedule. We know what we’ve planned for and what we’re expecting as we review The Cove’s calendar, but what is really on God’s agenda? Let’s remain faithful in prayer and watch for God to exceed our expectations!

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:18-20, ESV).

“Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 19-21, HCSB

We hope that you will enjoy our “prayer note” — an internal communication, here at The Cove, created each month to remind and encourage our staff to pray. We will share these with you at the beginning of each month in hopes that, you too, will be encouraged.

By Donna Riesen

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NKJV)

We made it through! Although much of the snow has melted, images remain frozen in our memories…we, the survivors of “The Blizzard of 2016.”

The huge winter storm affected the entire eastern third of our nation and disrupted the lives of more than 100 million people. Aside from the usual snow-day inconveniences of school closings and grocery stores emptied of milk and bread, there were serious and deadly consequences resulting from this massive weather system. At present, the total number of deaths attributed to the storm stands at 55. At any given moment during the storm or in its immediate aftermath, a look at online news feeds and TV newscasts revealed a study in contrasts.

One minute we viewed pics of adorable snow-suit clad children sledding with dad; next, we heard accounts of horrific traffic fatalities as semi-trucks lost control on icy highways. We grinned as we watched a Giant Panda delightedly frolicking in the powdery snow…but grins faded as we heard the tragic report of a mother and toddler who perished in their idling car—deaths blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the vehicle’s clogged tailpipe. Our hearts broke as we learned the child’s father had been just outside, shoveling to free the car of snow.

In an odd confluence of events, we saw simultaneously the breathtaking beauty of a world covered in glistening white…”Yaaay, God!”…and the heartrending tragedy of death and destruction…”Why, God?” The varied images of the blizzard brought it into focus again: The human condition exists in a kaleidoscopic jumble of joy and pain, laughter and tears, hope and despair. At any moment, you may have a relative suffering from cancer and another celebrating the birth of their first child. On any given Sunday, your pastor may be preaching to a business professional who just received a promotion, and another who never found work after last year’s layoff.

The Old Testament records the account of Job, who after learning of the loss of his cattle, servants and even his own sons, held tight to his faith as he issued this challenge to his wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?“ (Job 2:10, NKJV).

As the account of this faithful man’s suffering continues, we see him begin to question God. Yet among the many lessons the book of Job teaches us, one of the most important is this: God is big enough to handle our questions. In Job chapter 38, God lays out some questions of His own, all designed to lift Job’s eyes away from his current dire situation and up to the omnipotent, sovereign God who created and sustained him. Among the many revealing questionsGod asked Job is this: “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail?” (Job 38:22, NIV).

Rather than providing a detailed meteorological map and a lesson on low pressure systems and atmospheric phenomena, God gave Job a vivid mental image of the true Source of blizzard conditions. When we’re hit with a storm of trouble and “Yaay, God!” changes to “Why, God?”, we’re tempted to ask, “Who’s minding the storehouse?” The God who’s big enough to handle our questions answers, “I AM.” There are other biblical references to God’s storehouses. The psalmist David reminds us, “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; He sends lightning with the rain and bring out the wind from His storehouses.” (Psalm 135:7, NIV).

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us this reassurance: “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” (Luke 12:24, NIV)

After confronting the Israelites with their sins of apathy, unfaithfulness and corruption, the prophet Malachi delivers God’s message of hope, promising blessing to His children if they will turn back to Him in repentance and obedience:

“’Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty,’and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’” (Malachi 3:10).

On any given day in 2016, we will minister to a wide range of people at The Cove. When this year’s seminar season begins on February 12 with the Chip Ingram Military Marriage Retreat, some of the military personnel who attend will have just returned home from a long deployment. No doubt there will be couples whose marriage is near breaking from the strain of long periods of separation and stress. Others may be visiting The Cove simply as a relaxing getaway and a means of celebrating and strengthening an already strong marital bond. Newlyweds and seasoned marriage partners will be in attendance—each person as individual as a snowflake. How can we adequately minister to the heart of each participant? We can’t, but God can! Pray that He will throw open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on these men and women. Pray that God will open their hearts to each other and to Him.

The February 24-26 Leadership Renewal Retreat with Jim Henry will bring pastors from various denominations and varied situations. One pastor and spouse may arrive with joy and excitement, happy to be attending the retreat and anticipating some well-deserved downtime. Another pastoral couple may come with heavy hearts, seeking respite from a troubled ministry that is strained to the breaking point. Each retreat participant will arrive with a different set of needs and expectations, but all will be knocking at the door of the same Storehouse. Pray that the blessings of refreshment, renewal and encouragement will be poured out upon these faithful servants. Praise God, He hears our prayers, and His storehouse is never empty.